Fernando Polanco, executive director of Fundacin Galo Plaza Lasso, the organisation which governs the Condor Project, said: "We believe that commitments such as this one will help the majestic Andean condor to once again soar the Andean skies of Ecuador in greater numbers.

Andean condor Gus plays in the pool at the Welsh Mountain Zoo after completion of the pounds 100,000 condor house Picture: stacey Roberts

One male and three female Andean condors from the San Diego Zoo, Los Angeles Zoo, Dallas Zoo and a condor offspring from a Cincinnati Zoo breeding pair on loan to the World Bird Sanctuary in Missouri were flown out of Miami and were to be received by CORPOBOYACA, a natural resources management agency, early Wednesday morning with the help of the Colombian federal agency Ministerio de Medioambiente de Colombia.

The Zoological Society of San Diego has sent 30 Andean condors to South America from the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park over the last 10 years.

The Andean condor program is international in scope and involves a number of U.

The Andean condor, found throughout the Andes from Colombia to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, is threatened in its northern range and has become rare in Venezuela and Colombia.

Unlike other captive-hatched Andean condors released into the wild in Peru in 1980, however, this South American bird was not soaring on South American winds.

Nevertheless, this and six other Andean condors made history.

The seven Andean condors released in California in 1988, plus another five freed in Colombia last year, are part of an unusual experiment designed to help wildlife biologists in the United States develop techniques for restoring the rare California condor to the wild.

With wingspans of 10 feet or more and weighing up to 25 pounds, Andean condors are the world's heaviest fully-flighted birds.

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